E-drug: Re: No Free Lunch (cont'd)
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Dear Tanya,
I do not doubt that you have good intentions. What I doubt is whether it is
possible for anyone to be unbiased.
I think that you have given a reasonable answer to a trick question. Like
many you have based your answer on resistance patterns. Unfortunately what
happens in the Petrie dish does not always predict what will happen in a
patient. For example an antibacterial may not be able to penetrate an
abcess so it may not be effective against bacteria even when they are not
resistant to that antibacterial. Thus resistance patterns are a surrogate
for clinical effectiveness which may be misleading.
As a GP I want to know whether or not amoxycillin/clavulinate will produce
clinically significant benefit (eg less pain) for my young patients more
than clinically significant adverse effects (eg diarrhoea)?
Would you please advise me what the available evidence says about that?
Thank you.
Peter Mansfield
peter.mansfield@flinders.edu.au
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